SKELTON - IN - CLEVELAND
IN HISTORY
"WE WILL REMEMBER THEM"

Private WILLIAM DOWEY.

200841 (3177) 4th Bn, Yorkshire Regiment.

who died, aged 20, on the 23rd April 1917.

Son of Mrs. Mary Lena Dowey, of 13, Prospect Place, Skelton-in-Cleveland, Yorks.


Arras Memorial.

At the census of 1901 William, aged 4, was living at 13 Prospect Place and had been born in Skelton.
His father, Joseph, also from Skelton, was an Ironstone miner and presumably had pre-deceased William.
William's mother came from South Bank, N Yorks.
He had two sisters, Annie 6 and Hilda 1.

The 4th Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment were formed in August 1914 in Northallerton.
They became part of the 150th Brigade, 50th (Northumbrian) Division.
After landing at Boulogne on the 14th May 1915, the Division took part in most of the actions on the Western Front.
The Arras memorial commemorates 35,000 men who died in this area and have no known grave.
One of the most important campaigns in which the BEF was engaged, yet in comparison with the Somme of 1916 and Passchendaele of 1917, terribly neglected by historians.
The British Army launched a large-scale attack at Arras as part of a master plan by the new French Commander in Chief Robert Nivelle.
Although initially successful, it soon bogged down as with most and became a terribly costly affair, as with most.
The British attack was against the formidable Hindenburg Line, to which the enemy had recently made a strategic withdrawal.
The battle can be considered to be composed of a number of phases: the Battle of Vimy and the First Battle of the Scarpe were the opening phases;
The Second and Third Battle of the Scarpe and the final Battle of Bullecourt and other actions against the Hindenburg Line concluded the fighting.
William Dowey was killed in action at this time.

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